Read the passage and its setting
2 Chronicles 26:16–26:21, King James Version
Italic words were supplied in the English translation for clarity.
2 Chronicles 26:16–26:21
Uzziah trespasses at the incense altar and develops a skin disease
The Main Point
When strong, Uzziah becomes proud, enters the temple to burn incense, resists eighty priests led by Azariah, develops tsara'at on his forehead, and lives separately while Jotham governs.
What Is Happening Here?
When strong, Uzziah becomes proud, enters the temple to burn incense, resists eighty priests led by Azariah, develops tsara'at on his forehead, and lives separately while Jotham governs.
What Came Before—and What Comes Next?
Uzziah defeats Philistines and Arabians, receives Ammonite tribute, fortifies Jerusalem, digs wells, supports livestock and farming, organizes a large army, and equips new engines of war.
Isaiah is named as a recorder of Uzziah's reign; the king dies, is buried in a field belonging to the royal tombs because of his condition, and Jotham succeeds.
Follow Temple, Kings, Exile, and Return
See why this section appears here and how the author's movement leads to its meaning.
Why Is This Passage Here?
The Chronicler draws a firm institutional boundary between royal power and priestly service, then narrates bodily consequence.
Follow the Movement
When strong, Uzziah becomes proud, enters the temple to burn incense, resists eighty priests led by Azariah, develops tsara'at on his forehead, and lives separately while Jotham governs.
The Chronicler draws a firm institutional boundary between royal power and priestly service, then narrates bodily consequence.
What Is the Author Saying?
Why This Interpretation Fits
Narrated movement
When strong, Uzziah becomes proud, enters the temple to burn incense, resists eighty priests led by Azariah, develops tsara'at on his forehead, and lives separately while Jotham governs.
Placement in the book
The Chronicler draws a firm institutional boundary between royal power and priestly service, then narrates bodily consequence.
Understand the Meaning and Its Boundaries
Clarify the words that matter and keep the conclusion no broader than the passage allows.
Words That Matter
leprosy
See the cited Masoretic Hebrew record ·
The traditional KJV word renders tsara'at, a ritual skin-condition category broader than modern Hansen's disease.
What the Passage Is Not Saying
Reading 2 Chronicles 26:16–26:21 within Chronicles' complete movement rules out these uses:
The passage does not make skin disease proof of sin, justify disability stigma or isolation today, condemn medical care, or give clergy unaccountable power.
Context check: When strong, Uzziah becomes proud, enters the temple to burn incense, resists eighty priests led by Azariah, develops tsara'at on his forehead, and lives separately while Jotham governs. Its placement makes the Chronicler draws a firm institutional boundary between royal power and priestly service, then narrates bodily consequence.
What Remains True Today
Faithful memory tells the truth about worship and power together: it preserves covenant hope while naming labor, victims, institutional limits, human agency, and uncertainty.
Respond and Remember
Let the meaning shape life carefully, then practice explaining the section in context.
How This Should Shape Us
Why these applications follow
When strong, Uzziah becomes proud, enters the temple to burn incense, resists eighty priests led by Azariah, develops tsara'at on his forehead, and lives separately while Jotham governs.
When strong, Uzziah becomes proud, enters the temple to burn incense, resists eighty priests led by Azariah, develops tsara'at on his forehead, and lives separately while Jotham governs. Its placement makes the Chronicler draws a firm institutional boundary between royal power and priestly service, then narrates bodily consequence.
Faithful memory tells the truth about worship and power together: it preserves covenant hope while naming labor, victims, institutional limits, human agency, and uncertainty.
How should this shape us today?
Before applying this unit, distinguish narrator evaluation from character speech, compare the parallel record honestly, name who bears the cost, and choose accountable action that protects rather than coerces vulnerable people.
A Concrete Example
In a present leadership, worship, conflict, or repair decision, publish the evidence, hear affected people, document uncertainty, separate office from immunity, and build review and remedy into the action.
Teach It Back
Explain 2 Chronicles 26:16–26:21 in your own words. Include its movement, placement in Chronicles, one Samuel-Kings comparison, one material uncertainty, one affected person or group, and one modern use the complete context rules out.
Your explanation stays in this browser. It is not sent or saved.
Go Deeper
The main explanation above stands on its own. Open these optional sections for fuller language, history, disagreements, and source locations.
Read it sentence by sentenceEach line inside the larger movement
Narrated movement
When strong, Uzziah becomes proud, enters the temple to burn incense, resists eighty priests led by Azariah, develops tsara'at on his forehead, and lives separately while Jotham governs.
Placement in the book
The Chronicler draws a firm institutional boundary between royal power and priestly service, then narrates bodily consequence.
Original-language wording and grammarTechnical detail appears only where it helps
leprosy
The traditional KJV word renders tsara'at, a ritual skin-condition category broader than modern Hansen's disease.
How certain? probableWhat the first readers would have understoodRelevant history and culture
Monarchic narrative and postexilic historiography
When strong, Uzziah becomes proud, enters the temple to burn incense, resists eighty priests led by Azariah, develops tsara'at on his forehead, and lives separately while Jotham governs. Chronicles is ancient theological historiography shaped for a postexilic horizon; event reconstruction remains no stronger than the cited textual, historical, archaeological, or imperial evidence.
How certain? probableWhy translations sometimes differMaterial translation choices
KJV wording and material alternatives
leprosy requires ordinary-English clarification here: The traditional KJV word renders tsara'at, a ritual skin-condition category broader than modern Hansen's disease. The pinned KJV remains displayed while the Hebrew record and NET2 notes control material alternatives.
How certain? probableEarlier Scripture and inherited backgroundSupported quotations, allusions, and inherited ideas
Chronicles within Israel's Scriptures
Samuel-Kings supplies the closest parallel history, while Torah, Psalms, prophets, Ezra, and Chronicles' own earlier chapters provide literary and theological controls. Differences are evidence of selection and shaping, not defects to erase.
How certain? strongHow this connects with the rest of ScriptureThe passage's own meaning remains primary
Compare without forced harmonization
Read the received Chronicler's presentation first, then compare Samuel-Kings and other Scriptures without forcing agreement, devaluing either witness, or turning ancient Israel and Judah into modern political brands.
How certain? probableTextual variantsManuscript differences only when they affect meaning
Samuel-Kings differences and reconstruction limits
The text explicitly links trespass and tsara'at in this case; the ancient category is broader than Hansen's disease and cannot be generalized or clinically reconstructed.
How certain? probableWhere careful interpreters disagreeThe strongest options and their difficulties
Where do careful interpreters disagree?
Best judgment: The text explicitly links trespass and tsara'at in this case; the ancient category is broader than Hansen's disease and cannot be generalized or clinically reconstructed.
How certain? probableTheology that emerges from this passageConclusions drawn after reading the complete section
Theological contribution
The Chronicler presents divine presence, judgment, mercy, or providence through this movement: When strong, Uzziah becomes proud, enters the temple to burn incense, resists eighty priests led by Azariah, develops tsara'at on his forehead, and lives separately while Jotham governs.
How certain? strongTheological contribution
Across 2 Chronicles this movement contributes to the path from Solomon's temple through Judah's kings, exile, and Cyrus's unfinished invitation: When strong, Uzziah becomes proud, enters the temple to burn incense, resists eighty priests led by Azariah, develops tsara'at on his forehead, and lives separately while Jotham governs.
How certain? strongCommon ways this passage gets misusedFair explanation, context check, and stronger reading
The passage does not make skin disease proof of sin, justify disability stigma or isolation today, condemn medical care, or give clergy unaccountable power.
A temple, king, reform, victory, judgment, healing, prosperity, exile, or return line can be detached from the Chronicler's postexilic horizon, literary shaping, affected people, and the rest of the book.
When strong, Uzziah becomes proud, enters the temple to burn incense, resists eighty priests led by Azariah, develops tsara'at on his forehead, and lives separately while Jotham governs. Its placement makes the Chronicler draws a firm institutional boundary between royal power and priestly service, then narrates bodily consequence.
Faithful memory tells the truth about worship and power together: it preserves covenant hope while naming labor, victims, institutional limits, human agency, and uncertainty.
When strong, Uzziah becomes proud, enters the temple to burn incense, resists eighty priests led by Azariah, develops tsara'at on his forehead, and lives separately while Jotham governs.
Research trail and exact locationsThe source record behind this section
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
2 Chronicles 26:16–26:21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 26:16–26:21
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
STEP Bible NET2full, 2 Chronicles 26:16–26:21, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Supports: Publisher-visible framing of the Chronicler's God, worship, Israel, kingship, retribution, and hope, used within its access limitation rather than as uninspected detailed commentary.
Japhet, The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles (2009), chapter 3, 'The People of Israel,' pp. 209–307, and chapter 4, 'Kingship,' pp. 308–383; only the official exposed openings and ranges were inspected
Supports: A recent critical reading of institutional legitimation and selective historical discourse, used without reducing all worship to elite manipulation.
Geyser-Fouché, HTS 79.1 (2023), complete official HTML, sections on selective narration, temple and personnel, royal patronage, Athaliah and Joash, exile, and power
Supports: Case-sensitive distinction between events and literary presentation in ancient historiography, including credibility limits and rhetorical shaping.
Kalimi, 'History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility,' repository PDF pp. 7–25
Supports: Ancient textual association of Uzziah's cultic trespass and skin condition, expressly bounded against modern diagnosis or illness blame.
Meyer, Verbum et Ecclesia 44.1 (2023), complete article sections discussing 2 Chronicles 26:16–21, ma'al, tsara'at, and Leviticus 13–14
Sources for This Section
These records identify the source, the claim it supports, and the exact location used. A source remains evidence to evaluate; it does not replace the biblical text.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact KJV wording, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete verse coverage for this thought unit.
Exact location: 2 Chronicles 26:16–26:21, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: 2 Chronicles
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Hebrew wording, morphology, names, clauses, regnal formulas, temple vocabulary, older-English controls, and translation limits.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v.2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/2Chr.xml, Masoretic words and morphology for 26:16–26:21
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible Full Notes: 2 Chronicles
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press; STEP Bible presentation, 2019 edition; current web presentation
Supports: Unit-bounded translation comparisons and only those lexical, textual, grammatical, numerical, historical, and parallel-passage notes attached to these verses.
Exact location: STEP Bible NET2full, 2 Chronicles 26:16–26:21, verse-attached translation and translator notes
Open source ↗modern scholarly monograph limited access
The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles and Its Place in Biblical Thought
Sara Japhet
Eisenbrauns / Penn State University Press, English edition 1989; reprint 2009
Supports: Publisher-visible framing of the Chronicler's God, worship, Israel, kingship, retribution, and hope, used within its access limitation rather than as uninspected detailed commentary.
Exact location: Japhet, The Ideology of the Book of Chronicles (2009), chapter 3, 'The People of Israel,' pp. 209–307, and chapter 4, 'Kingship,' pp. 308–383; only the official exposed openings and ranges were inspected
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
1 and 2 Chronicles as a discourse of power
Ananda Geyser-Fouche
HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 79(1), article 8011, 2023
Supports: A recent critical reading of institutional legitimation and selective historical discourse, used without reducing all worship to elite manipulation.
Exact location: Geyser-Fouché, HTS 79.1 (2023), complete official HTML, sections on selective narration, temple and personnel, royal patronage, Athaliah and Joash, exile, and power
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility: Chronicles in Its Ancient Context
Isaac Kalimi
Poznań Theological Studies repository edition, pp. 7-25, 2019 repository edition
Supports: Case-sensitive distinction between events and literary presentation in ancient historiography, including credibility limits and rhetorical shaping.
Exact location: Kalimi, 'History, Historiography, Historical Evaluation and Credibility,' repository PDF pp. 7–25
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access scholarly article
Why is there an asham sacrifice in Leviticus 14?
Esias E. Meyer
Verbum et Ecclesia 44(1), article 2832, 2023
Supports: Ancient textual association of Uzziah's cultic trespass and skin condition, expressly bounded against modern diagnosis or illness blame.
Exact location: Meyer, Verbum et Ecclesia 44.1 (2023), complete article sections discussing 2 Chronicles 26:16–21, ma'al, tsara'at, and Leviticus 13–14
Open source ↗